[phone calls OTA] Technical Difficulties

[st_abby]

He'd passed by the alien, gleaming thing in his room a hundred times by now, or nearly must've done, and hardly stopped to examine it. It was strange, but so were most other things in this place. A shiny, awkward looking device attached to the wall by means of a long cable, set on one of the little tables that seemed to litter these rooms. It had neat rows of square buttons with numbers etched on, and a handle, so Vax'ildan had supposed it was meant to work some feature of the room in a way he could scarcely imagine. He didn't want to break it, but eventually the boredom and curiosity got the better of him, much like with the door locks. It would probably fix itself, if it came to that.

After the first few moments spent listening to the monotonous warble that came from the handle, Vax'ildan reached to jab a finger into a button. When it beeped but did no more, he pushed another. And a third...

OOC Note: If you would like a thread with Vax, please leave a top-level comment to this post and he will reply! No need to pre-arrange, but as one does when learning new technology, he may disconnect the call etc. accidentally or your character may tell him to leave them alone in very few words if they so choose - most of these threads are likely to be short.

Comments

[st_abby]

"I'm a strange creature," Vax'ildan assured him, though it didn't negate his being a person even so. "...Did you say your grandsons are here? I didn't realize think we had any children." It seemed to follow that anyone who sounded fairly young must have very small grandsons.

[st_udious]

"They're not children," Henry said, "Sam and Dean are very much grown men. Time travel is...complicated to say the least." And it was something he never should've done even if he hadn't had an alternative at the time. "Made even more complicated by the fact that the versions of them that exist here are several years younger than the ones I met before I arrived."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Where depends on when, but now is convenient. If it is for you as well, my room is the Austrian Suite," she told him and proceeded to explain where it was. She did rather hope he would come now, since it would give her something to do that wasn't wait impatiently for Jack. "If not, then I may require a more formal engagement. A dinner date, perhaps." She teased, of course. Her dinners and evenings were booked for the foreseeable future.

[st_abby]

"I do have the very important business of calling strangers uninvited," he suggested. "But it can wait. I'll be right over."

Though Vax had sorted out the most basic function of the machine, he was still thinking of it more like communicating through his pearl earring than as an instrument of polite correspondence. Not that he'd ever been accused of having good manners before. He didn't think to say goodbye before hanging up.

[st_abby]

"Well... Shit," Vax marveled softly. He and Percy had something of a gap between what they remembered, with Percy seeming to have come from only a day or so later, and not having recognized Vax as being gone before he arrived at the inn. It was odd, but nothing in comparison to what this one was describing.

"Is yours a family business, then? Do they do what you do?"

[st_udious]

"No," Henry said softly, "They were all supposed to learn like I did, like my father and his father before him and back and back, but there was no one to teach them. There was an attack by a very powerful demon who we all had thought had been dead for centuries. She was after an item that would allow her access to something else very old and very dangerous. She slaughtered everyone." His voice had gone a little distant. He could still picture the night of the attack. All the screams. So much blood. "I managed to escape with what she was after through time where I met the boys, found out she was still hunting me and learned to my great heartbreak that not only do I never see my family again, but my son died thinking I'd just walked out on him."

He cleared his throat. "At any rate, the moment I arrived here I'm fairly certain was slivers of seconds before being eviscerated so there's nothing for it now."

[st_abby]

It was too much to be taken in fully at once, and all of it tragedy by one turn or another.

"You've got those grandsons of yours," was all that Vax'ildan could think to say. "Sam and Dean, you called them? It may be a mean comfort, given the rest - but with them, at least, you may have a second chance. That's more than most have here."

[st_udious]

There was a dry sort of laugh that blew out of Henry's nose, a soft huff of acceptance. It wasn't enough, of course. It would've been better if Dean had just let him go back and fix things in the first place. If he died, at least he would've died trying. "It's a selfish sort of second chance, though," he said, looking down at his pen. "No matter what happens here, they still won't know me when I come tumbling out of a hotel room closet in their future. I'm grateful to be alive, Vax'ildan," he said, more using the man's name just to prove he remembered it. "And doing my best to use the skills I have to the benefit of all those stuck here with me regardless of what happens with Sam and Dean."

[st_abby]

"Good news for your neighbors, from the sound of it." Less so for the grandsons, maybe.

"You know, I've heard it said before that wishing someone to live an interesting life is a kind of curse." Vax let a beat pass, but picked up the next. "I'm starting to think that all of us here lead interesting lives."

[st_udious]

"Can't argue with you there," he said and sighed. "Still, I'm sure none of us will run out of stories to tell over drinks. There's got to be some kind of blessing in it."

[st_accato]

"See? Mastering. So, did you ask the operator to connect you to my room or was it just luck that you punched in my room number?" Buffy was relaxing now that she knew she wouldn't have to do the 'talk' of shame with the person on the other end. She was enjoying teasing him.

[st_abby]

"If you find it, let us know," Vax suggested, trying to remember how the random conversation had even come to this.

"Not that it hasn't been 'interesting,' but what do I do to turn off this conversation and have another?" There were dozens more people at the inn needing harassment, after all, and he'd barely begun to work the conversation machine.

[st_abby]

"Let's call it good fortune," Vax suggested. "I've still yet to sort out which numbers will connect me to what person."

[st_accato]

That made Buffy laugh, "sorry. I'm not laughing at you, honest. Just thinking of how hard it would be to remember what random number you pushed and especially if it was a stranger on the other end."

[st_udious]

"Just put the receiver back in the cradle where you found it in the first place," he said, shifting in his chair, preparing to be hung up on.

[st_abby]

"Thanks for that," Vax responded brightly, decoding the words well enough to end the call.

[st_abby]

"It gets more difficult as you continue to bother more strangers," Vax admitted, hardly blaming her for the laugh. How backwards he must seem to people used to a similar time and place to the inn. "What about this 'operator' you mentioned?"

[st_accato]

"Every hotel has an operator." Buffy paused, "well every hotel that I've been to, it's probably just the person at the front desk. Anyway, you call and say I want to talk to Buffy Summers, I don't know the room number and they'll connect you. I'll guess it works the same way here. I haven't tried calling anyone that I don't know their room number."